How do you listen to new music?

I usually listen new music in the venue live. That's my #1 preference. Sometimes I purchase the plane tickets or jump on car to get to the venue. Then I can buy CD or download and listen mostly through the headphones.

If I'm totally unfamiliar with it I listen like a record A/R guy. Twenty or thirty seconds per track unless it grabs me. If it grabs my attention I'll stay with it for the entirety unless the artist really screws it up. Having said that I'll admit to being completely wrong many,many times in re: first impressions. Absolutely hated Talking Heads, Police,and even the Stones when I first heard them. In my defense, the first time I heard the Stones, I was like 6 years old ;)

If you are talking about a new artist i am not familiar with, I will listen intently 2 or 3 times before forming an opinion on it's potential.
If it is an artist I am familiar with, I can listen through once and decide if it is up to the standars I expect from the artist.
Glen

I used to listen to it twice in the car to get to know it and then again on the Hi-Fi to see how it sounded, Up until a couple of years ago, unless it was pretty special, it was then consigned to the shelf as another few took its place. I was buying 25-30 CDs a month and never got to know any albums like I used to as a youth. I have now changed my habits and all but stopped buying. I am playing albums, again a few times in the car, until I get to know the music and then I am reviewing them on my RYM account. I will only do the latter when I have given it a fair crack of the whip and reviewing it means I have listened to it in detail. This method means I have discovered a lot of hidden gems in the collection I knew little or nothing about.
I have around 4500 CDs and that's more than enough for me never to need to buy again....but I will! Just not in the previous numbers.

A fairly complicated routine has evolved over time:

New music purchases usually come in monthly to quarterly batches of somewhere between 6 to 12 CDs.

Half go into the car and get popped into the changer. I'll fire up the one I've been most anxious to hear. If it's really got me on the first listen, it stays active. Otherwise, several tracks get a quick listen, before the next CD gets cued up. Cycle thru as necessary over the next 3 to 10 weeks to cover (usually) all tracks. If one CD sounds like it might be sonically and musically special (fairly rare), it may get pulled and brought inside for main rig listening.

Over a week or three, I've ususally (not always, tho) heard every track at least once during my commute. Some get long term residency in the changer while others are quickly popped out and "migrated" for the in-house routine (below). The real losers (also fairly rare) go straight to inventory - lost in my CD racks to grow old and lonely.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the other half of the purchase gets ripped to both my Sonos (multi room) server and my QSonix (main rig) server. The former will get heard in the kitchen, yard, gym, etc, as something slightly more than background music.

Eventually, CDs are swapped from the car into the house for ripping and from the house into the car for commuting time.

Most CDs usually don't get played on the main system until "pre-vetted" on the Sonos or in the car, after they've migrated there. Main system time is now (alas) too limited, and reserved for the music I want to really focus on - meaning music I already know (at least, a little).

This process might sound a little too involved, but it usually works well for me.

Unless it gets complicated when the next batch of CDs arrives before the first batch has been completely rotated.

Then it's chaos. Chaos, I tell you!

Marty